The Rif War

The Protectorate:

The Spanish positions in the north of Africa go back to the 15th century and the 16th, when the Crown of Castile took possession of Ceuta and Melilla, among other places. From 19th century on, the weakness of the sultanate of Morocco caused the intervention – military and administrative - of the European powers, among them Spain. After the battle of Castillejos against Moroccan troops in 1860, Spain signed with Morocco the Wad Ras Treaty, by which the territories of Ceuta and Melilla were extended among other compensations. Far from reaching lasting peace, revolts and violence outbreaks continued to happen. In 1906, France and Spain definitely divide Morocco in influence areas via the Algeciras Conference. Spain established its protectorate in the Fez Treaty (1912), which lasted until 1956.

Officer rises in an aerostatic balloon to make a reconnaissance over the village of Nador.

A cometa Caquot “B” balloon rises to practice a reconnaissance over Nador. (Undated, around 1921)

Hotchkiss Machine Gun Model 14 of the Ceuta Regulars shoots at the enemy from the hills of Nador.

MIGUEL PRIMO DE RIVERA. Spanish dictator between 1923 and 1930, he was the highest ranking officer in the Spanish counteroffensive to the uprising of the War in Morocco. Born in 1870 in Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz), he joined the army in his youth and among other destinations he was in Cuba, Philippines and Morocco, where he took active part in the Rif War. Africanist soldier (like Generals Francisco Franco or José Sanjurjo) he was promoted to General – the first of his promotion to reach that rank- and was, among other appointments, Captain General of Valencia, Madrid and Catalonia, where he had to fight the ongoing social upheaval. When he lost the support of King Alfonso XIII and of great part of the Generals, he resigned of his post in January 1930 and exiled to Paris, where he died on March the 16th.

JOSÉ SANJURJO, Marquis of the Rif, was the general in charge of executing the Alhucemas Landing, the Spanish offensive against the Rif’s revolt after the Annual Disaster in 1922. Born in Pamplona (Navarra) in 1872, took part in the Cuba War and when it ended took part in several campaigns of the Morocco War. He became commander of Melilla in 1921 and began the counteroffensive since Alhucemas to subdue the Rif’s leader Abdelkrim El Jatabi. His military success made him be appointed High Commissioner of Spain in Morocco. Besides in his honor, the city of Alhucemas was named Villa Sanjurjo during the Protectorate. Sanjurjo had several important roles during the monarchy of Alfonso XIII, the Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, which he supported, and in the first part of the 2nd Republic. He promoted a coup against the Republic that didn’t turn out well. He was incarcerated, saw his death penalty commuted and exiled in Portugal. Again he took active part in the coup of July 1936, but died in an airplane accident in Estoril (Portugal) when he headed to take the command of the rebellion.

MANUEL FERNÁNDEZ SILVESTRE, General of the Army, he was General Commandant of Ceuta (1919) and Melilla (1920-1921) in the Rif War and main responsible for the Annual Disater. Son of a soldier, he was born in Cuba in 1871. During his military studies he met in the Toledo Academy with Dámaso Berenguer, later High Commissioner of Spain in Morocco. He was in Cuba and, after several posts he arrived in 1904 to Melilla, where he would meet later the Rif leader Abdelkrim El Jatabi. The ongoing revolts of the natives from 1911 on helped him prove with certain success his military skills. He was appointed field assistant of King Alfonso XIII but, with the escalation of the Moroccan conflict, he was sent as maximum military responsible of Ceuta, with Berenguer as maximum authority in the Spanish Protectorate. A year after he transferred to lead the seat of Melilla and began the invasion of the Rif to end the insurrection. However his negligent act of leaving the rear unprotected and the good direction of the leader Abdelkrim El Jatabi and the guerrilla of the Rif tribes caused the Annual Disaster in 1922 where even General Silvestre died.

DÁMASO BERENGUER FUSTÉ was a soldier and politician that led the next to last government of the Alfonso XIII monarchy. Born in San Juan de los Remedios (Cuba) in 1873 he made military career. In 1911 he was entrusted with the command of the forces of Melilla, whom he reorganized. Promoted to general, he was War minister in 1918 and later on, High Commissioner of Spain in Morocco, the highest rank in the Spanish protectorate. His good performance was cut by the acting of his subordinate, general Manuel Fernández Silvestre, in the Annual Disaster of 1921. Indicted and separated from office, he received amnesty and was rehabilitated when the coup of Miguel Primo de Rivera. In 1930 he was appointed president of the Government of Spain by King Alfonso XIII, but his rule only lasted a year. With the 2nd Republic, in 1931, he was imprisoned for his role in the Dictatorship. Received amnesty he took a secondary role in the Spanish political life. He died in 1953.

Church of Nador that served as stronghold for the Guardia Civil in the first days of the defense and was used as a munitions depot.

Member of the II Flag of the Legion, Duke of Montemar, in the turret of the position of Tauima.

Fortified position of the Uixán Mines, which has been recovered by the Spanish troops.

Trench built by harkas (militia) of the rebel cabila (tribes) placed in the railroad to Sebt that had been taken by the Riffs and was reconquered by the bayonet by the Spanish troops, from which they shoot at the enemy.

The soldiers raise the flag over the walls of the citadel of Zeluán, captured by the column of Berenguer.

Arrival of the troops in Mount Arruit. In the foreground a wrecked campaign kitchen. Behind, the position where was the column of General Navarro. You can see the corpses of the Spanish officers and soldiers murdered when they left the position.

The High Commissioner, General Dámaso Berenguer – with a suit of djellaba cloth-, visits Mount Arruit where the men of the Navarro column were killed or imprisoned after the Annual Disaster.

Officers and soldiers from the Legion, Native Police and Regulars in the fortified position of Ras Medua after being stormed by the forces under the command of General Cavalcanti. Among the military there are two civilians, possibly journalists.

General Cavalcanti (with a cane), General Commander of Melilla, directs the operations for the take of Harcha, in company of his Chief of Staff among them Colonel Despujols (at his left).

Mortar battery of the instruction group shoots at the village of Harcha, in Beni Bu Ifrur.

The regulars harass the rebels that made resistance in Zalamina.

Notable Caid, Abd el-Kader with a group of his Harka members, at the foot of the Spanish flag, shortly after it has been placed in the Iguerman plateau, which after being occupied allows the domination of the whole cabila of the Beni Sicar.

Military seaplane type SIAI S. 16 from the Los Alcazares (Murcia) wing that has arrived Mar Chica (Melilla), where it will serve.

General Sanjurjo (c), after flying over the frontline in a seaplane, during a visit to the Atalayon air base. At his right, Captain Ramón Franco. Sanjurjo took part as an aerial observer in some of the flights where they tossed ammunition, food and ice bars to the sieged Spanish troops.

General Commandant of Melilla, José Sanjurjo (3l, sitting), flanked by Colonels José Riquelme (2l) and Ignacio Despujols (4l) and the officers of his Chief of Staff observe the movements of the Spanish troops to subjugate the cabila of the Beni Said.

Interview of Luis de Oteyza to Abdelkrim El Jatabi
After the military disaster in Annual, where nearly 10.000 soldiers were killed and several thousands were made prisoners, the Spanish journalist Luis de Oteyza made then one of the great exclusives that still are remembered. Director of the “La Libertad” newspaper, in August 1922 Oteyza managed to reach the headquarters of the Rif leader Abdelkrim El Jatabi in Axdir, north of Morocco. Oteyza made an exclusive interview to Abdelkrim that caused great upheaval in Spain because the rebel chief, that had just proclaimed the Rif Republic, was considered in Spain as public enemy number one. However Oteyza, who went with two photographers, is considered a pioneer of investigation journalism. According to reporter Eduardo del Campo: “Oteyza proposes doing one of the great missions of journalism: telling what he says, how he is, what he does, who is this man that our government and most of our society consider the incarnation of evil”. Exiled after the Spanish Civil War, Oteyza died in Caracas in 1961.

Portrait of the Rif leader Abd-El-Krim during his interview with Luis de Oteyza, director of the newspaper “La Libertad”

Colonel Silverio Araujo and General Felipe Navarro (sitting right to left), prisoners of Abd El Krim in the house the Rif leader possesses in the city of Axdir, pose for the photographer after being interviewed by reporter Luis Oteyza (up 3r) special war correspondent in the area. .

Multiple engines Farman F.60 Goliath, the first chemical bomber of the Spanish Air Force. The first unit was acquired in 1923, year that the gas factory in Melilla starts working. It’s capable of tossing 4 to 6 bombs of 100 kilograms of mustard gas. Chemical bombings over the north of Morocco lasted until July 1925.

Charge of a squadron of the Spanish cavalry.

The Superior Commissioner Luis Aizpuru Mondéjar (c, facing the other way) speaks with Muley Ahmed el Raisuni (c) Sharif of Yebala, shortly before beginning the Sidi Musa interview, to try to get el Raisuni to accept the authority of Majzen and of the Jalifa. Facing the other way, the interpreter of the High Commission Clemente Cerdeira Fernández.

Directory president, Miguel Primo de Rivera with the son of the Raisuni, during the visit of the Spanish dignitary to the palace of the Sharif of Yebala in Arcila.

Lieutenant Agustín Hidalgo de Quintana (l) poses with another comrade besides a Havilland D-H4 airplane. Lieutenant Quintana took three shots while he piloted his apparatus in the battle of the Kert Pass, having to land violently. Hidalgo de Quintana was the pioneer in a system of low flying attack called “Spanish Style Flight”, used initially to toss supplies.

A supply column of the Spanish army heads to the Gorgues mountain range during the Xauen campaign to take water and food to the Spanish positions under siege by the enemy harkas.

Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Franco (l) plans the next moves of his column, which has the goal of taking supplies to the besieged positions of Abada and Tacbadut, in the campaign for the liberation of Xauen.

Spanish Troops in the in the Morro Nuevo rock in the second phase of the landing operations in Alhucemas.

General Primo de Rivera and the High Commissioner of Morocco, General Sanjurjo, inspect the troops, once finished the operations in Alhucemas.

On September the 3rd 1925 the Riffs, commanded by El Jeriro, attack Kudia Tahar, placed in the Tétouan defense line, to threaten the capital of the Protectorate and avoid the Alhucemas landing, from where reinforcements are sent. The forces under the command of General Sousa liberate the position on day 13. In the image, evacuation of wounded in the line of Ben Karrich.

The military directorate president, Miguel Primo de Rivera (in the center, with the Isabel II barrack hat and a cigar in the hand) poses with the military commands during the first operative phase of the Alhucemas landing. Among other commands there are: Air Force General, Jorge Soriano (2ndr), Division General José Sanjurjo (with Primo de Rivera, with the hands in his back) Brigade General Leopoldo Saro (5thr, with a broad brimmed soft hat). Among them is also a French Chief of Staff Officer. The image was taken over the deck of the “Alfonso XIII” battleship.

Colonel Millán Astray moments before being wounded in front of the hill Dar Rai, transmitting orders during the advance of his column formed by four flags of the Legion and two battalions of the Ceuta regiment. The operations had as a goal taking the peaks of Mount Yebel Bu Zeitum, where the Riffs had installed one cannon to bomb Tétouan.

Alfonso XIII with Jalifa Muley Hassam, watch the troops parade after the ceremony of giving the first flag to the Legion.

Alfonso XIII with Superior Commissioner, General Sanjurjo(l) check from a high point the construction work in the future harbor of Alhucemas.